Profile of Dr Pwyll ap Siôn

Name:

Dr Pwyll ap Siôn

Position:

Senior Lecturer in Music

Email:

mus017@bangor.ac.uk

Location:

Main Arts Building (first floor, up the stairs opposite Powis Hall)

Phone:

+44 (0) 1248 383808

Background

Pwyll ap Siôn read music at Magdalen College Oxford, graduating in 1990. A Vaughan-Williams scholarship enabled him to pursue his studies at Bangor first with composer John Pickard, then later with David Gottlieb and Martin Butler. He has been a member of staff at the School of Music since 1993. Both musicologist and composer, his compositions attempt to articulate connections between high and low culture, avant-garde and pop, minimalism and complexity; his research into the music of Michael Nyman also reflects these concerns.

Teaching

Minimalism, Michael Nyman, Cage and Experimental Music, Popular Music (including The Beatles) Composition and Twentieth-century music.

Responsibilities

Director of Postgraduate Studies

Research Interests: The Music of Michael Nyman, Composition, Popular Music (especially popular music in Wales)

Main publications

Book

The Music of Michael Nyman (Ashgate Press, 2007)

Articles

‘Reanimating the Image: Michael Nyman’s music for The Piano’, in the Continuum Companion to Sound in Film and the Visual Media (ed. Graeme Harper) (New York: Continuum Press, forthcoming)

‘Michael Nyman’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell (London: Macmillan, 2001), vol. xviii, pp. 247-9

(with Ruth Barnett) ‘‘Nearly Stationary’: The use of silence in Cage’s String Quartet in four parts’, full paper included in the 9th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, Bologna, August 22-26, 2006 (ISBN 88-7395-155-4)

‘‘Yn y Fro’: Mudiad Adfer and Welsh Popular Song during the 1970s’, Welsh Music History, vol.5, 2002, pp.190-216

‘Nationhood, the Welsh Composer and the Post-modern Period’ (Ty Cerdd - Music Centre Wales invitation lecture, 2005)

Compositions (Pwyll’s music is represented by Oriana publications http://www.orianapublications.co.uk/composer.htm )

Four (violin, piano, shakuhachi and Japanese percussion) 10’, performed by Ensemble Tozai, Swansea Festival, 19 October 2001

Painters of Spain (settings of Stevie Smith, Lorca and R.S. Thomas for baritone and piano) 12’, performed by Jeremy Huw Williams (voice) and Nigel Foster (piano), St. David’s Hall, Cardiff, 4 February 2003

Three Studies for Piano, 12’, performed by Iwan Llewelyn-Jones, Bangor New Music Festival, 11 March 2005 and Taina Neimala, Llandudno Music Festival, 15 July 2005

Three Folk-Songs (for mezzo soprano and piano) 8’, performed by Buddug Verona James and Andrew Wilson-Dickson, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin 12 November 2005

Piano Trio (1995, revised 2005) 12’, revised version performed at the Music Room St. James Centre, Valetta, Malta, 9 December 2005

Waltz (piano) 8’, performed by Richard Ormerod (Lower Machen Festival, 29/6/1997), Iwan Llewelyn-Jones, North Wales Music Festival (24/9/1999), Ian Pace (Bangor New Music Festival, 15/4/2000), Llyr Williams (North Wales Music Festival, 28/09/2002)

Direct Injection (cello), 6’ revised version performed by Ivan McCready, Bangor New Music Festival, 12/4 /2002 (Radio 3 broadcast, 22/6/2002)

Gwales (for orchestra), 14’, performed at the Great Hall, Aberystwyth, 29/4/99, Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, 4/5/99, St. David’s Cathedral, Dyfed, 31/5/99 (all BBC NOW, Grant Llewelyn), Radio 3 broadcast, 10/1/2000; Sinfonia Cymru, North Wales International Music Festival, St. Asaph Cathedral, 21/9/2003

The Crossroads (baritone solo, SATB choir, orchestra), 23’, performed by Bryn Terfel, BBC NOW (conductor Grant Llewelyn), National Eisteddfod Choir, at the National Eisteddfod, Llanelli, 5 August 2000; BBC Radio Cymru broadcast, 5 August 2000; TV broadcast, S4C Wales, 22 October 2000

CDs

‘Merch’, on ‘Songs for Jeremy’: Jeremy Huw Williams (Baritone) and Nigel Foster (Piano), Sain SCD 2266

Waltz, on ‘Welsh Portraits’: Iwan Llewelyn-Jones (Piano), Sain SCD 2308

Three Folk-Songs, on ‘Songs of the People’: Buddug Verona James (Mezzo) and Andrew Wilson-Dickson (Piano), Fflach CD295H